Dan Brown’s new novel: Origin
Palazzo Vecchietti in Florence was owned by the family Vecchietti, and is located precisely in via Vecchietti.
As if that was not enough, you should know that once on Via Vecchietti, there was also a small church called San Donato of Vecchietti!
In The Divine Comedy, Dante cites the powerful family of Vecchietti (Paradiso XV, 115-117), who belonged to the faction of the Guelphs.
In Paradise, Dante meets Cacciaguida, an ancestor of his who participated in the Crusades.
Cacciaguida, reminiscent of ancient Florence, which was distinguished for nobility and value, cites some important families which, despite being rich, did not boast of their luxurious living.
One of these families was Vecchietti.
Palazzo Vecchietti in Florence is famous for its architectural beauty (due in large part to the restructuring carried out by Giambologna), and the statue of a little devil that sits on one of its corners.
This is what the legend says:
One day in the year 1245, St. Peter Martyr, as he usually did, was preaching against the heretics in the Old Market Square (Piazza della Repubblica) in Florence.
The crowd that had gathered to hear him were so great in number they filled the square; the crowd overflowed into the Piazza delle Cipolle (Piazza Strozzi).
Suddenly the Devil, taking the form of a black horse, wanted to frighten and disperse the crowd engrossed in listening to the saint.
The horse began to run like crazy in the market, trampling everything in its path.
The crowd began to disperse, and people started running in hopes of saving themselves.
St. Peter Martyr saw the situation, raised his arm, and made ??the sign of the cross with his hand, in the direction of the runaway horse. The horse stopped immediately.
The faithful began to return to the saint to express their gratitude, and someone realized that the horse was gone.
Some centuries later, in 1578, in the memory of that event, Giambologna modeled the statue of the little devil as thanks to Bernardo Vecchietti, who had been his protector and patron.
The little devil was placed in the exact location where the horse first appeared and finally disappeared: one of St. Peter Martyr’s many miracles.
Even today, the devil is there in Via Vecchietti, and has an appearance similar to a horse.
Today, the exact spot where tradition says the miracle happened is called “Canto dei Diavoli” (Devil’s Corner).
There is also a fresco from the fourteenth century above the Loggia del Bigallo in Piazza del Duomo, almost in front of the entrance door of the Baptistry, that depicts the miracle.
Today, the original devil is in the Museo Bardini, after having been exposed in the Palazzo Vecchio.
However, a copy of the devil still remains in the exact spot the original once sat.
Pictures by Wikimedia and cs.kent.ac.uk
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